• N. Volchkova — New Theory of International Trade and New Economic Geography (Nobel Price in Economics 2008)
• D. Colander — The Complexity Revolution and the Future of Economics
• S. Kuntsel — Evolutionary Modeling and Critical Realism
• A. Buzgalin, A. Kolganov — World Economic Crisis and Scenarios of Post crisis Development: Marxist Analysis

• V. Tambovtsev — Financial Crisis and Economics

• The Future of Institutional Theory (The Round Table of SU–HSE)

• Leksin V. N. Federative Russia and Its Regional Policy

• Agreements and Coordinated Activities (The Round Table at the Institute of Contemporary Development. Moscow, Oct. 1, 2008)

Abstracts

The article examines the causes of origin and manifestation of the current global financial crisis and the policies adopted in developed countries in 2007–2008 to deal with it. It considers the effects of the financial crisis on Russia’s economy and monetary policy of the Central Bank in the current conditions as well as the main guidelines for the fiscal policy under different energy prices. The measures for fighting the crisis that the Russian government and the Central Bank use to support the real economy are described.

The article outlines the emergence of crises, methods of their averting and the way of overcoming the crisis for Russia. Its line of reasoning makes it possible to draw a conclusion that so-called reflexive processes have always been the original cause of world crises, though their role in the economy has not practically been considered.

The article contains a thorough analysis of a variety of causes that have provoked the present financial crisis now spreading globally. Special attention is drawn to specific factors of the crisis origin and sudden expansion. The article emphasizes some peculiar features of the financial crisis progress in emerging economies. Underlined are particularities of concepts of and run through the financial markets adjustments. The author comes to the conclusion about assets overvaluing and extreme cyclical factors susceptibility in the majority of developing countries.

The article considers a new tendency in the development of Russian off-shore business – transition to creating off-shore financial (financial-industrial) networks. Due to including companies from "soft" off-shores and sparring off shores the respectability of business in the whole grows while preserving the traditional off-shore benefits. The conflict of interests of business and the state towards off-shores that control 70–80% of Russian large private companies is shown; major off-shore risks under conditions of the current crisis are considered. The author assesses recent changes in Russia’s anti-off-shore policy and formulates some recommendations aimed at its perfection. It is also very important to improve national economic and political business environment in general.

The paper reviews Paul Krugman’s contributions that earned him Nobel Prize in Economics of 2008 and grounded two fields of economic theory – new theory of international trade and new economic geography. The paper shows how the assumption of internal increasing returns to scale and monopolistic competition borrowed by Krugman from the industrial organization theory changed the conclusions of standard models and enriched our understanding of international trade and spatial distribution of economic activity.

The paper considers the change in theoretical and empirical research in modern economics. This change is driven by the emergence of new theoretical approaches associated with the complexity theory and behavioral economics. The author shows that in future economists will reject some basic assumptions of neoclassical economics and adopt many different interdisciplinary approaches in order to study concrete economic problems. These gradual transformations should considerably change the structure of economic knowledge. Formal modeling will be of minor importance and will give place to more applied fields of research.

The paper shows that the major methodological problems of modern economics are rooted in internal contradictions and inconsistencies of positivism as applied to social sciences. Evolutionary economics is considered as an alternative approach to mainstream economics, capable of overcoming internal deficiencies that mainstream economics faces. But within evolutionary economics one can find different methodological grounds leading to multiple views on how to analyze complex economic reality, build models and evaluate them properly. It is argued that unifying methodological principles of evolutionary economics are to be found in the philosophy of critical realism. The most appropriate scientific method is that of computer simulations.

Implications of the modern Marxist theory create the opportunity to show the inevitability, the reasons and the main features of the first world crisis of the XXI century. It has been generated by deregulation of economy, which caused the ‘classical’ crisis of overproduction, and by the new contradictions of late capitalism, in particular, by persistent over-accumulation of capital and by the excessive development of the transactional sector, of the fictitious financial capital and its isolation from the real sector. Marxist analysis of social interests and contradictions shows that anti-crisis measures require not only increasing of state regulation, but also determining on behalf of whom and in the interests of what social groups this regulation will be realized. The authors propose to do this on behalf of the financial capital and in the interests of citizens, but also formulate the neoconservative scenario of post-crisis development.

Treating the money as "under-way-contracts", or "under-executed contracts", the author describes its properties as an economic good. It is shown that the money is a private good with valuable externalities, i.e. a merit good. From this fact the necessity of financial markets state regulation oriented at minimizing negative externalities by restriction of using the most risky contracts is drawn.

The paper presents the proceedings of the round table which took place within the Summer School organized by the Laboratory of the institutional analysis of economic reforms (SU–HSE). The participants included V. S. Avtonomov, Ya. I. Kuz’minov, Vad. V. Radaev, A. E. Shastitko. They discussed the place and disciplinary boundaries of institutional economics within the system of social sciences; problems of economic policy and their links to institutional analysis; the institutionalists’ interaction and cooperation with psychologists, sociologists, lawyers; the role of institutional economics in the applied economic research.